Dhaka district to have 20 parliamentary seats

Dhaka, Jan 14 (bdprem.com) – Dhaka district will have seven more constituencies, raising the tally to 20, as the Election Commission delimits parliamentary seats in 18 districts on the basis of population. The number of seats in Dhaka Division would increase by four and Chittagong Division would get one more. Your Ad Here Barisal will get another two and Khulna one. The number of constituencies in Sylhet and Rajshahi divisions would remain unchanged. Chief election commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda made the disclosure at a press conference in his office Monday noon. Other two election commissioners Md Sohul Hossain and M Sakhawat Hossain and EC secretary Muhammad Humayun Kabir were present. Seats in Dhaka, Faridpur, Gazipur, Kishoreganj, Manikganj, Munshiganj, Mymensingh, Netrakona, Rajshahi, Sirajganj, Chittagong, Chandpur, Comilla, Satkhira, Barisal, Barguna, Pirojpur and Meherpur would be delimited. Huda said, "We started work on delimitation on December last year as per the election roadmap. The work would continue until June. As per the census of 2001 using the Geographical Information System (GIS), the main work can be completed in one month." As per the population, the highest number of 21 seats had been allocated for Dhaka district while Meherpur would get only one. But the Electoral Constituency Delimitation Act 1976 stipulates that every district must have at least two seats and so one seat of Dhaka district would be added to Meherpur. As a result, the number of seats in Dhaka district stands at 20. However, in the three districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts the legal obligation of one district having at least two seats would not be applied. The CEC said that the number of polling centres in 18 districts would also be changed. After the demarcation, the number of constituencies in 17 districts of Dhaka Division would be 94, 16 districts of Rajshahi Division will have 72, 11 districts of Chittagong Division 58, 10 districts of Khulna Division 26, six districts of Barisal Division 21 and four districts of Sylhet Division 19. Asked whether the EC expected any legal tangle over the delimitation, Huda said, "If anybody wants to raise any objection about the demarcation he must have to be a voter of the constituency concerned. "We would settle objections after holding hearing. If anybody files any case in court, it will be faced." The main polls office is delimiting the Jatiya Sangsad constituencies throughout the country for the first time after 1984. Partial demarcation was done in 1991 and 1995, with the commission facing several hundred cases on each occasion.